It’s while riding the Planet X Superlight down a hill somewhere, I’m sure of it.
During yesterday’s ride (and for several rides before that too) the bike seemed to insist i go faster, not just up the hills (this is good) but back down them too. It feels so nice at speed, so willing to carve round the corners a little tighter, a little faster…so flickable over humpback bridges and through dips in the road that i end up railing round bends at frankly silly speeds and two-wheel-drifting over rolling lumps in the road as a matter of course.

Heading down from the Nick O’ Pendle into Sabden yesterday i hit 54.9mph…down a lumpy-bumpy country road, with cattle grids and corners, oncoming traffic and various types of animal crap all over the place. Actually, I hit 54 just before Sabden itself…just inside a built up 30mph zone complete with houses and dozy drivers (that comes straight after the derestricted section where you can build up a big head of speed). I would have hit 60 if i hadn’t finally realised that drivers coming the other way were looking terrified and that i was seriously flirting with disaster should anyone pull out of their driveway.
But it felt so good, as i hit the road markings warning of the impending speed limit i was thinking “leave the brakes for just a second longer…i can get a few more mph if i just hold off for just a moment…i can still slow down in time, stay tucked in…oh shit i’m in the centre of town..aaarg brake brake brake!”

Lots of other drivers were rudley awoken from their slumber over the rest of the ride as i hurtled down the descents, tyres on the edge of grip, using the whole of the lane to get round the corners, desperate for the chance to release the brakes a little earlier or not touch them at all.

One day someone will be coming the other way, cutting the corner, thinking to themselves “gosh what a lovely quiet bit of countryside, i can keep my speed up a bit if i just nip a couple of foot onto the other side of the road here while i look at the scenery,”
BANG

Just a quick (vitriolic/sour grapes) post about the Big Weekend gig that took place down the road from my house over the weekend.
That i didn’t get tickets for.
That i’m no longer bothered about.

What the fook is wrong with kids these days? I started off the weekend jealous of whoever got tickets for the show, but after watching it on bbc3 i’m glad i wasn’t there. The atmosphere in the tent seemed, frankly, embarrasing!
It seemed pretty much all the tickets got given to 12 – 13 year olds who have no idea how to interact unless it’s via ‘txt msg’ or with the person they sit next to in class! I think i saw about 3 people in the first few rows of the crowd who weren’t watching the bands directly in front of them through a pink motorola razr. cheering and moving around (yes i know it’s cramped down at the front)? Nah, lets just stand here and look vaguely uninterested!

I gave up completely when the lead singer from the gossip climbed into the crowd and was confronted by panicked teenagers (dear god they genuinely DO resemble sheep, i thought at the time) who seemed desperate to get out of the way, probably all thinking
“mmuuhoh no, they never told me this sort of thing happened in Smash Hits, i should txt someone about it”
apart from a brave few, who dared to stand still and get some pics on the aftermentioned pink razrs.
Sad
very, very sad

I felt sorry for everyone playing there, you could hear them trying harder and harder to get something out of the pre-pubescent rabble and failing time after time (unless what they were playing had been on the telly, in which case you could occasionally get a bit of a sing-a-long going). In fact i’m amazed non of them sacked it off after a couple of songs (fair play to Just Jack for getting fed up and saying “you know, why don’t we try putting the phones away and jumping up and down, yeah?”, even though i don’t like his music…it didn’t work, of course, but fair play for trying). There was an interview with someone who played there (i think it was one of the “scissor sisters”) on the radio this morning, who mentioned how the crowd made them work really hard, which kind of proves my point: Kids have no idea.

actually, that’s probably unfair, i think most places in the uk have a thiving young music scene, i think it’s just preston kids.

Right then: The Good: I “won”, after 24hrs (well, just over 23) no one person had done more laps than me. Ha. I rule. I still felt fine(ish) and was knocking out laps of just over 1hr without any problem (save all the problems below). This would suggest that my training is working and is encouraging for the summer races – i’m now hoping all the 24hr races i do are in awful conditions as i seem to do OK when it’s filthy!
Other people were great, Matt lost about 6hrs of his life driving to the race site and back again and helped out with mechanics/general faffing during the race. He didn’t even seem to mind my nodding off/waking up with a start in the car on the way home! Guy stood around in the p-sing rain on sunday to make sure i could eat and drink without leaving the course and even lent me his lights for the dark hours hen i discovered that my dinottes hadn’t charged up. I think it’s pretty safe to say i wouldn’t have done anywhere near as well if it wasn’t for both of them. Ace.
The course ruled, despite some of it resembling the somme it remained completely rideable, OK some of it was hub deep slop but for the most part it held up nicely.
The bike also ruled, i didn’t feel beaten up after the race like i always did on the cannondale…i know i’ve said this before, but it is a great bike for long distance riding at speed and is still a hell of a lot of fun on the technical bits too

The Bad: I think i’ll make this a list;

the weather: resembled the strathpuffer, but about 10 degrees warmer

the brakes: on my bike did their usual vanishing act and i rode for about 16hrs with just a front brake

spokes: i snapped one in the rear wheel on my 9th lap so had to back off a bit on the fun bits to not write it off

lights: the batteries for my dinottes didn’t charge up (i’ve found out and fixed the problem now) so i had to limp round one lap with emergency reserve lighting.
Luckily for me Guy lent me his USE exposures which lasted me through most of the night

darkness: guy’s lights finally ran out at just before 4am, i managed to finish the lap i was on and then had to just sit around and wait for an hour and half it to get light again before i could carry on riding

laps: i’m positive i did 20 laps, i can remember what laps i was on when various incidents/stops took place and it adds up to 20. To register each lap you had to call out your number to the organisers as you went through the start/finish line and on a few occasions they misheard me. i thought i’d corrected them each time they made a mistake, but i honestly think one lap got missed (perhaps they thought i said 413 rather than 430 or something, it’s easily done at 4 in the morning, esp if i was mumbling!). I’m not really complaining as it didn’t effect the end result and the organisers did a brilliant job unenviable conditions, just pointing it out.

Other Things: i like matt’s completely unofficial statistical analysis, which suggests i did 10% better than last year. That’s an encouraging idea.

Rich came 13th in his open 5 adventure race thingy on the sunday, i what i imagine was nasty weather. “Gosh” i hear you say, “that’s good”. Yes, it is, but not as good as the fact that he’s now 4th in the series as a whole! Ace! more podiums for dirtstreetpub.com on the horizon i reckon!

In other news, i rode the superlight last night for 2hrs at an average of 21.3mph, it made my legs hurt and my heart beat quite fast, lovely.
i forgot to drink while i was out, so the rest of the night was spent trying to make up for it, even though the water from our taps tastes manky

In other other news, i received my certificate today for passing an ‘assertiveness in the workplace’ course (entitled “say what you really think”). This is a victory for common sense, as i didn’t bother to go to the course as i told everyone it was a complete waste of my time 🙂

Out riding for a couple of hours after work tonight.
Will it be horribly windy? (don’t count on it)
Will it be sunny and warm? (outlook good)
Will i match or beat last time’s average speed of 21.0mph over the 39.32miles? (you may rely on it)
Will the superlight’s pedals click and creak annoyingly all the way? (concentrate and ask again)
Will the superlight’s pedals click and creak annoyingly all the way? (my reply is no)

Today’s preminitions brought to you by the online magic 8 ball. Sounds great, but my psychic powers suggest a bit of disappointment is on the way…